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Mummelmann on 29 December 2016
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onionberry said:
Mummelmann said:

Scaling and optimization are really, really not Ubisoft's thing. If one platform is severely underpowered, you can be sure that the version on this platform will suffer, or the other versions. Seeing as how they'd never let the more or less surefire money makers suffer, I fear that a Switch release could be downright shameful.

Case in point; I just bought Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on Steam winter sale, it runs like sheer, unadultered shit on my monster PC (as in 12-15fps with AA turned on) and looks considerably worse than several titles that I can easily max. Ubisoft are not good at this, not even close, and they have a shoddy history with Nintendo on top of that. Hell; they have a shoddy history overall for the past 5-6 years.

now you're talking about specific developers, not about the technology, and yea ubisoft games run like shit, but sometimes they run like watch dogs 2 or ac syndicate,wd 2 being the most optimized game I played this year after Doom. 

Scalability exists for a reason and that's the whole point of new engines. That's why all the games run different on every system, I'm not going to argue anymore about something that is so basic in game development.

If ubisoft can or can't optimize the games we will see, but not because one hardware is not as powerful as the other that means that all the version are going to suffer, that's nonsense. Now if we are talking about the ps4, xbox and switch holding back a gtx 1080 then yea, but even on PC the games need to run on the weaker hardware possible.

You don't need to educate me on scalability, it's one of my main arguments and topics from the infamous UNITY thread and I've been saying for several years now that middleware and scaling is what will be the main tools (literally) to bring development costs down, especially for medium sized and smaller developers. I believe I have the basics of development, and pretty much most of the processes involved in distribution and assemby/production more down than the average user in here.

My point is that if the hardware on one platform requires a lot of scaling due to a lack, or a perceived lack, of power, Ubisoft (and most others) are extremely unlikely to put much effort into this version, doubly so if it happens to target what is historically a terrible demographic for the franchise(s) in question.

In short; there is close to zero incentive for Ubisoft to make a good Switch version of an Assassin's Creed game, any main installment at any rate. Your last part more or less supports what I'm saying as well, Ubi won't let the weaker link in a chain break the chain (the overall sales across all platforms) and will likely not put Switch high on their priority list, if at all, when it comes to Assassin's Creed. In order to avoid headache and backlash from Nintendo fans, they are most likely of all to forego a mainline AC game on Nintendo to begin with.